


Without Love

by masterroadtripper



Series: All The Years Of Our Lives [3]
Category: Hairspray (2007)
Genre: Aftermath of Violence, Established Relationship, Homophobic Language, M/M, Non-Graphic Violence, POV Original Character, Secret Relationship, US Legalization of Same-Sex Marriage, Wade is Corny Collins
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-27
Updated: 2018-02-27
Packaged: 2019-03-24 20:32:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 5,447
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13818912
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/masterroadtripper/pseuds/masterroadtripper
Summary: Julie Larkin, the only child of unmarried Link Larkin is in high school and starts to see a new side of her father.





	1. Patterson Park High School

There were rats eating crumbs off the sidewalk and Julie almost wanted to give them some of her sandwich. But then she didn’t. She knew that her dad always hated when she did not eat the lunch he gave her. So she kept walking towards school. Patterson Park High School. The only high school in their district and the one her late grandfather, her father and now her, had all gone to.

And it just so happened to be the bane of her existence. Julie had friends. Really, she did. But living in what many considered a non-conventional household, she was never considered popular. So everyday, she stayed out of the way, stayed under the radar and made sure not to do anything that would get her tormented.

She pushed her way through the grey front doors on the school only to be greeted with the obnoxious noise and scent of a high school. The lobby area was crowded with people observing the newest posters hung on the bulletin boards. Once she emerged in the direction of the hallway her locker resided in, Julie felt like she could breathe again.

“Survive the walk in?” her friend, Tammy teased as they arrived at their lockers at the same time.

“Barely. The basketball team rosters must have been posted this morning,” Julie speculated. There would have been no other reason for the lobby to be so crowded otherwise. Tammy nodded in agreement as they pulled their notebooks out of the metal lockers. Saying goodbye to Tammy, Julie headed to her first period Geography class.

Everyday as Julie headed across the quad to her geography class, she passed the “hall of grads.” The name really said it all. Any grad from the beginning of the school's existence to now had there name added to the cement walls on either side of the halls. Julie’s name would be up there at the end of next year. Under the carved cement numbers reading 1981. “Julie Larkin” it would say. It would likely be sandwiched between one of the Ladley twins names and Gary Malkins.

But as she headed closer to her geography class, she travelled through the graduating years until she hit 1963. She could find her father’s name easily, it just so happened to be just slightly lower that eye level. Link Larkin, it read. Julie ran her fingers over the name before continuing to class.


	2. Math Homework

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter, we meet 35 year old Link Larkin and 41 year old Wade "Corny" Collins. Just picture Zac Efron (with black hair) five years in the future and James Marsden exactly how he is.

Julie hopped up onto the bar stool in the kitchen of the two bedroom apartment she and her dad lived in. Listening to the old show tunes playing from the speakers of the radio above the microwave, Julie watched her dad whistle along and dance slightly as he flipped a piece of chicken over in a fry pan.

“Hey lil darlin, how was school today,” her father asked, momentarily turning his back to the stove to greet her. Julie walked home from school nowadays, so they ended up catching up on her day once she got home. But some days she missed those walks.

“Fine, math was hard. But Cross Country practice was fun,” Julie reported. Her muscles were tired but not too sore from the after school practice. “What are you cooking?” She asked, opening up her math textbook on the counter.

“Chicken,” her father replied between whistles along to whichever song was playing on the radio. It sounded like a 1960s show tune, but she wasn’t too sure.

“I can see that,” Julie replied before amending her question, “What are you going to do to the chicken then?”

“I don’t know yet,” he answered again, swiping his black hair out of his eyes. Her father was still young. She was born when he was nineteen and now, sixteen years later, he looked strikingly similar to the teenage boy on the television show he used to dance on. Jet black hair and ice-blue eyes, she bore an uncanny resemblance to her father. Everyone said so. Occasionally they were mistaken for siblings.

Her mother, the rarely mentioned woman in their past, lived in New York. Julie had never actually met her. Well, that wasn’t entirely true because they met when she was born. But the lady hadn’t wanted Julie. And that was fine. Her father and her were a family.

“Wade is coming over for supper,” her father added offhandedly. Her father’s best friend, Wade, came over for supper or lunch or breakfast, almost everyday. He was part of their family too. In the capacity of a quirky uncle, but present in almost every moment of her life anyways.

She wasn’t too sure how they initially met, the two men being six years apart in age. Her father had once mentioned they met on the set of the singing and dancing based television show he was on in high school. But they never would have danced together. Wade was six years older than her father, so he would have been long gone from that show by the time her father was on it.

“Cool,” Julie said. Wade used to spend more time at their apartment when she was younger. Now he only came for meals. Never married and without children, Julie figured that her father invited him over because he felt bad for him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, edits are appreciated.


	3. Over Cooked Broccoli

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Enter Wade and the Corny Collins Show.

Math homework made her brain hurt. Julie had been working on the same question for over ten minutes when the doorbell rang. Hopping off the bar stool and running to the door, she called to her dad, “I’ll get it.” Throwing the door open, Julie recognized the face of her father's best friend.

“G’afternoon,” Wade said as Julie stepping aside to let him into the apartment. Wade was considerably taller than both her and her father. At only five feet six inches, Wade was a solid half foot taller than her. As usual, his curly brown hair was styled away from his face and his grey button-up dress shirt and royal blue dress pants were crinkled from a day at work.

“Dad’s in the kitchen,” Julie provided and started to walk in that direction. Figuring that her math homework could wait, Julie closed the book and started packing up her stuff. While shoving her homework back in her bag in her bedroom, she could hear the soft voices of her father and Wade speaking from the kitchen.

Listening to the soft laugh of her father, Julie smiled. He never laughed anymore. He would smile at jokes, smile when she placed in her cross country races, but rarely would he laugh. In the past years, Julie had noticed the deep lines around her father’s eyes and on his forehead becoming more pronounced. She was worried for him. For whatever reason, he had been or currently was extremely stressed about something. But Wade always seemed to bring a dose of “happy” with him whenever he visited, so Julie was grateful to hear her dad laugh.

Walking back into the kitchen, she saw her father, still dancing, in front of the stove, and Wade standing on the same side of the island and about only a foot to his left. They were still talking about something, but she could make out the words, Corny Collins Show. Julie was certain that that was the name of the show her father danced on.

“When will supper be ready?” Julie asked. Wade spun around to look in her direction before taking a deliberate step further away from her father. Julie figured that she wasn’t supposed to see that step and made no mention of it.

Looking over his shoulder, her father replied, “As soon as this chicken finally cooks. Could you set the table?” Julie nodded before moving between Wade and her dad to access the cupboard for plates beside the stove.

* * *

 “What was the show called that you used to dance on dad?” Julie asked after swallowing a bite of slightly over cooked broccoli.

“Corny Collins Show,” he replied before shoving enough chicken in his mouth to not have to answer anymore questions for a considerable period of time. Julie smiled. She knew he did enjoy his time on the show, but whenever anyone asked the retired dancer about it, he clammed up tight.

“How is school going?” Wade asked, effectively changing the subject. Julie recognized the shift, but answered his question.

“Fine, math is really hard this semester,” Julie replied, slowing becoming too engrossed in telling the men tales from Patterson Park High School to notice how each had a hand under the table, or to notice the fleeting looks her father and Wade shared.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know I'm not being super clear on the Corny Collins Show for a reason. Link wants to leave that part of his past behind him and Wade respects that. Julie just wants to know about her father's past. 
> 
> Edits are appreciated.


	4. A Domestic Morning in The Larkin Apartment

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So, its the next morning. Enter domestic Link/Wade.

Julie had retired to her room to get ready for bed earlier than usual that night. She was tired from the days before school band practice and after school cross country practice to force herself to stay awake much longer. But, thankfully, tomorrow was Saturday, so she could sleep in. 

* * *

 And sleep in she did. Making her way back into the kitchen at eleven the next morning, she could smell the glorious smell of bacon cooking. A decent cook for a man whose mother died in his early teens, her dad was never good at making breakfast. Meaning, Wade had come over for breakfast. Or hadn’t even left, Julie wondered as she saw Wade wearing the same royal blue pants from yesterday and one of her father’s shirts. It wasn’t the first time Wade had slept over, he had just been doing so less frequently after getting an apartment of his own downtown.

Her father sat at one of the bar stools with a steaming cup of what Julie figured was coffee sitting in front of him. Wade was in front of the stove cooking bacon and pancakes. Standing quietly in the doorway, Julie watched Wade humming as her father muttered some quiet words that seemed to accompany his tune.

“I can’t believe you still remember this song Little Lark,” Wade said, not turning to face her father. Had he turned, she surely would have been spotted and Julie really wanted to watch what was going to unfold. The nickname - Little Lark - was not an unfamiliar one. She had heard Wade say it on occasion to him. It seemed like a term of endearment, and Julie thought it was cute. Their last name - Larkin - was similar to that of the name of a bird, so it fit.

“You specifically asked if I could sing it,” her father replied equally as quietly, “how could I forget?” Julie wanted to continue watching the scene, but her stomach would not cooperate in the face of the amazing scents from the stove and was growling.

Stepping out into the open concept kitchen, she said, “Morning.”

“Good morning honey,” her father said, turning on the bar stool to face her, “sleep well?”

“Great, thanks dad,” she said, giving him a good morning hug.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just so everyone is clear, Maryland only decriminalized homosexuality in 1999. Until that point anyone could be jailed if homosexuality was suspected. Thats why Wade and Link are being so cautious. The apartment downtown is mentioned so that there is plausible deniability towards their relationship.
> 
> Edits are welcomed.


	5. A Deeper Meaning

Changing into day-clothes, Julie thought back to the kitchen. Come to think of it, it was not the first time she had seen Wade and her father act that way together before. It was similar to how her friend, Tammy’s, parents acted together. And Wade had never not been around. Since her earliest memories, he was always around. Teaching her how to write her name, helping her ride her bike, running after her when she finally figured out how to ride her bike and was too good at crashing into stationary objects. He was almost like a second father to her. Julie even thought she could remember Wade sleeping on their couch before moving downtown where he worked. It would have been closer to stay with them during the week, Julie reasoned. But, what if there was another reason. Nothing sinister. Julie doubted Wade was capable of being sinister. Something deeper. Something that happened - or started - on that television show. And she wanted to know.

* * *

 “Dad, I heading down to Maybelle’s,” Julie called as she grabbed her shoulder bag from where it hung on one of the rarely used dining room chairs.

“Be careful. Be back by supper though,” he called from where he sat at his work desk doing who knows what. A movie script writer, her father was always working on something at that desk. Sometimes, she wondered why they had not yet just moved to Hollywood. But, her father liked Baltimore - he had grow up just blocks from where they lived now. And as a writer, he was rarely needed at the actual set.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Maybelle's, if anyone is unaware, is the store that the Queen Latifah character owns in the 2007 movie.
> 
> And, yes Link is a movie script writer. I didn't want him to to be a singer/dancer/actor and yet still in the Hollywood business.


	6. Maybelle's Records

“Julie Larkin!” a rich, warm voice said the second Julie opened the shop door that afternoon. Maybelle’s Records started off selling, well, records. But with the advent of cassettes and VHS tapes, she sold those as well. Maybelle, one of the most beautiful african women Julie had ever met, appeared from behind the counter. With the help of her cane, made her way over to Julie. Maybelle “Motormouth” Stubbs was a famous jazz singer and dancer before taking over the WYZT television station in 1962. The station aired the Corny Collins Show. Now her oldest son ran the station.

“You look more and more like your father everyday,” she commented looking Julie up and down. “Now what can I do for you?”

“I was looking for some copies of the Corny Collins Show from 1961, 1962 or 1963,” she requested.

“Ah, looking for your father are we?” Maybelle asked before calling, “Inez, come give your mother a hand.” The youngest child of Maybelle Stubbs, Inez, came out from the backroom carrying a little baby bundled up in a pink striped blanket. Tracy, Inez’s baby, was sound asleep in her mother's arms.

“Hey Julie,” Inez said as soon as she saw her. Julie nodded a greeting to Inez while Maybelle repeated Julie’s request.

“We have a bunch of those around here somewhere. I’m not sure they will go back any farther than 1962, though,” Inez muttered as she turned to walk to one of the back shelves. Crouching down to look through a row of VHS tapes, Inez pulled out what she was looking for. “This is the earliest we have. June 1961. A full year before I danced on that stage. I’m surprised mom even has this,” Inez said and passed it to Julie.

She knew Inez was the first african girl to be crowned Ms. Hairspray on that show, but she was never sure what year that had happened. “Do you mind if I watch it here?” Julie asked before clarifying, “My dad is not too fond of talking about his time on the show. He’s never shown me any of these before.”

Turning over the VHS in her hand to see the back, she looked at the cast photo. Quickly, she picked out her dad. He was just to the left of center in a ridiculous pose. He wore a bright blue suit and black and grey striped tie. His hair was entirely slicked back, except for one rogue curl that hung down the middle of his forehead. It looked really silly. But this was the Link Larkin Julie figured her father was running away from.

“Any of Link’s spawn are welcome on my couch,” Maybelle said, leading her towards the back room with Inez following.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, Inez named her daughter after Tracy Turnbald.


	7. Every Afternoon When the Clock Strikes Four

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Welcome to the 1961 Corny Collins Show (one year before Hairspray takes place)

“Oh every afternoon when the clock strikes four,” the man in center back of the stage sung. Corny Collins, Inez had whispered. The tape wasn’t great quality, but as this Corny Collins guy danced closer to the camera singing, “A crazy bunch of kids crash through that door,” everything suddenly crashed into place.

Wade, Dad. They met on the Corny Collins show, because Wade was Corny Collins.

A much younger version was dancing around on the screen in front of her, but it was surely Wade. She wanted to hit herself for not figuring it out sooner. They knew the same show tunes, they had been friends since her dad was in high school, they danced together on the one thing on the planet her father refused to talk about. Maybe something sinister had happened on that show.

But the longer she watched, she started seeing the offhand looks the two would exchange. The one person Wade - Corny Collins - would watch as he stood at his announcing booth in the back while not dancing or singing, was her father.

It would be easy to miss. The dancers moved all over that stage and one could say Corny was just trying to monitor the progress of the lead male dancer. But that, coupled with their past interactions from the first sixteen years of her life, Julie doubted there was anything sinister occurring except for forbidden, illegal, love.

But it was cute, sweet even. The looks they exchanged when they thought the camera was just off them. When her father, the lead male dancer and Amber, the lead female dancer, danced their number with just Corny, he could see just how convincingly they hid their relationship. While Amber and Link were the “perfect television couple,” it was hard not to notice just how happy her father looked in the short fifteen second section that Corny spun Link around like it was just them. And the smile her father had on his face was not plastered on.

“He looks so happy,” Julie whispered, more to herself than to anyone else.

“Figured it out have we?” Maybelle asked from her seat in a worn recliner chair. She had been watching Julie’s face almost the entire time.

“Have they been in love this whole time?” Julie asked.

“Thats something to ask your dad,” Maybelle replied.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Good on you Maybelle.


	8. Confirmations of the Epic Kind

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Imagine that your father just admitted that he could go to jail because he is in love. That's how Julie is feeling

“I’m home,” she called, locking the apartment door behind her. In just a tee-shirt and jeans, her father still sat at his work desk, now typing away at the typewriter they had. Doing a quick visual sweep of the house confirmed that Wade had, in fact, gone home.

“How was Maybelle’s?” he asked, still with his nose in his typewriter.

“Fine, I found a tape from the Corny Collins Show. June 1961. You looked so young,” Julie said, easing her father into the conversation she wanted to have. She figured she knew what she was going to hear. Julie just wanted to hear his side of the story.

“That was my second season,” he replied, voice neutral, unwavering.

“I really liked that song you, Amber and Corny did,” Julie said, once again steering her father in the direction she knew he desperately wanted to avoid.

“Ladies Choice. I really enjoyed that number,” her father muttered before standing and heading into the kitchen. Julie followed. Standing next to the fridge door that her father had opened, she saw the picture that had hung there for years. Her, her father and Wade a baseball game.

“I didn’t know that Wade was Corny Collins,” she said as the fridge door closed.

Her father took a glass down from the cupboard and while pouring the orange juice replied, “He just wanted to be known as Wade to you, not Corny.”

Standing in the kitchen silently, Julie swallowed the lump in her throat and asked, “Who is Wade to you dad?”

“He’s my best friend.”

“No. I saw the way you danced together. Looked at each other. Still look at each other. He might be your friend, but who is he really?”

“My friend,” he insisted.

“Don’t lie to me. You’ve lied to me my whole life.”

“I can’t. I’ll go to jail.”

“So I won’t tell anyone.”

“Someone will find out.”

“Not for nineteen years they haven’t.”

“What are you asking me?” He father shouted. He spun around and put his juice on the counter. “Just bloody say it. Accuse me of loving someone. I dare you Julie.”

“Are you and Wade-,” Julie cut herself off. After it came out of her mouth, she could never take it back. Until she said it, every piece of evidence she had could be argued, denied even. But she needed to know. She needed to know just who Wade was to her father. “Are you and Wade gay?”

“Yes.”

“Were you ever going to tell me?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I tried to phrase this as semi-dramatically as possible. Don't really like it. I'll probably repost/beta this chapter in the near future.


	9. The Change Room After Rehearsal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Caution: homophobic bullying/aggression referenced. If this bothers you, tread lightly.

“How was school today?” she heard her father call from the kitchen. Julie walked from the front entry way into the kitchen and found Wade sitting at one of the bar stools for the first time since her and her fathers conversation. It had been a few days.

“Great, thanks,” she replied before turning to drop her bag off in her room.

Once she came back her father said, “Julie, could you sit down with us for a second?” She nodded and pulled out a bar stool. Across the island stood her father and Wade had moved to join him.

“Have you ever been in love?” her father asked. Julie shook her head “no.” She dated a guy once, but it was the exact opposite of love.

“When you are in love, nothing else matters.”

“Are you guys in love?” Julie asked before continuing, “actually, don’t answer that.” The men looked at each other then shared a confused look. “Maybelle showed me her recording of the June 1961 Corny Collins Show.”

Opening his mouth and laughing, Wade’s cheeks colored. “You saw Ladies Choice?” Wade said, the smile on his face growing, “Oh God. We weren’t even trying to hide anything that routine.”

“No,” Julie said shaking her head, trying to contain the bubble of laughter growing inside her. Her father's face had turned beet red and he was hiding in his hands, “You guys were so obvious.”

“Anyways,” her father said, cutting into their laughter, “On a more serious note, do you understand what Wade means to me, and what I mean to him?”

Julie, wiping all of the smile off her face, recited what she had heard many times in the past, “to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do us part?”

“Something like that,” her father said, reaching out to grab Wade’s hand. Intertwining their fingers, Julie could see the sadness and fear in both their features. Lines etched deep into skin, never to be removed.

“And we understand that this love is illegal,” Wade added, “and we could both go to jail for life. That was why, no matter how much I pressured your dad to tell you about us, he never did.”

“I always want to be here for you and I will not risk jail,” her father finished.

“People would say we were crazy. But the second your father danced onto that stupid set, I knew I was in love,” Wade told her. Julie couldn’t help it. She couldn’t imagine a world where Link Larkin and Wade Collins were not by her side. Tears rolled down her cheeks and Julie desperately tried to wipe them away. Watching as her dad and Wade walked around the countertop, she was suddenly smothered in two massive bear hugs.

“Don’t cry Julie,” her father whispered into her black hair, “hush lil darling.”

Once the tears stopped, her, admittedly limited, math brain took over. She was sixteen. Her father was nineteen when she was born. He would have known (and evidently loved) Wade for three years before she was conceived.

“I don’t mean to sound ungrateful, but how was I born then?” Her father and Wade shared a look before Wade shrugged.

“I got caught staring at Wade in the change room after a rehearsal.”

“The guys beat him up,” Wade added, “They were going to put him in the ground.”

“And I know this isn’t an excuse, but after I recovered, the guys threatened to tell the stage manager. They wanted me kicked off the show. So, to prove to them I was just like all the other boys, I had sex with your mother,” her father said, looking seriously dejected, upset and just generally mad at the world, “Yes, you were an accident, but you were the best accident I have ever made in my whole life.”

“Did she know why?” Julie asked.

“No one knows but you and Wade.”


	10. Two Dads and a Grad

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Now we start skipping years. It is now 1981, the year of Julie's grad. Homosexuality is still illegal in Maryland.

“I’m so glad you are here,” Julie said to Wade. The black and red gown she wore over top of her blue dress was super itchy.

She had asked Wade if he could come to her high school graduation a few weeks ago. He had just nodded, not actually giving an answer. And even though he now lived full time with them - maintaining his apartment in downtown to allay suspicion - Julie didn’t ask him again. If he felt uncomfortable going to her grad, she wouldn’t force him.

“I’m glad to be here,” Wade said, “Do you know where your dad is?”

“Not sure. I think he went to the washroom,” Julie replied. While it was considered criminal to be a homosexual, Julie often wondered if Wade even tried to subtle. Currently, his suit was a bright purple with a yellow tie.

“You should get backstage,” Wade said taking a quick look around the filling gymnasium. Julie always knew, in the deep recesses of her heart that Wade would be at her high school graduation. Just never in the capacity of in-formal second father.

“I should,” Julie agreed. She really wanted to give her father one last hug before walking the stage, but if he was going to take such a long time, she would have to forgo the formality. Leaning in to Wade, he wrapped his considerably taller frame around hers and crushed her in a hug. She knew that, even though it wasn’t her birth father hugging her, Wade was basically the same thing.

“Good luck kid,” he whispered into her freely flowing black hair. Her icy blue eyes gazed up into his and she smiled. Wade had aged since her first memories of him. The wrinkles around his eyes and mouth more pronounced, his brown hair greying at the temples, but it was the same man her father fell in love with twenty one years ago.


	11. A Birthday and a Court Vote

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Meet Cooper, the adopted son of Julie Larkin. The year is 1999. We know what that means?!

Julie was 35 when she heard on the radio that the State Government of Maryland had voted for the decriminalization of homosexuality. She had been driving to her dads house on the I-83 with her adopted son, Cooper. Cooper, an orphaned African boy from New York, had wanted to celebrate his seventh birthday with his grandfather and Wade. So who was Julie to say no?

So they were driving to their house when the announcer on the radio broke the news. She pulled her 1990 Plymouth Horizon off to the shoulder of the highway, put her head down on the steering wheel and let the tears of joy flow freely. Her dads would never end up in jail. Not for being in love. Nineteen years after learning the true nature of their relationship, they could be free. Truly free.

“Mom, are you okay?” Cooper asked from his place in the passenger seat. She couldn’t answer him. How could she explain a thirty eight year gay relationship to her son? Her son who knew the men as Grandpa Link and Wade. Wade the best friend. The best friend that was always around…

“Oh Coop,” Julie said, leaning over to hug her son, his black afro compressing against her cheek, “I am very okay. Thank you for asking honey.” 

* * *

 The door to the apartment Julie had grown up in, swung open to Wade, dressed in a pink Foo Fighters tee shirt and jeans. He was smiling brighter than she had seen in a while. His eyes, while almost as vibrant as his smile, were rimmed in red. Like he had been crying. Crying tears of joy.

At sixty, Wade’s formerly brown hair was entirely grey. He had added some padding to his waistline and cheeks, but otherwise had never changed. Her father, while greying at the temples, maintained a surprising amount of jet black hair for a fifty four year old. But the stress of his relationship with Wade showed in the deep lines carved around his eyes and on his forehead. He easily looked the same age as Wade while actually six years younger.

“Happy Birthday little man,” Wade greeted Cooper, giving him a fist bump. Walking into the apartment, Julie knew something felt different. Not in a bad way. Just different.

“I’m not little anymore Wade,” Cooper said, grabbing onto Wade’s hand, “I’m a whole seven years old now!”

“You’re so old. Should I call you old man?” Wade asked and Cooper made a face, thankfully keeping his tongue in his mouth - a habit he had managed to pick up from school.

“No,” Cooper replied, giggling. 

* * *

 In the kitchen, her father stood with his back to them, looking at whatever he was cooking. Wade and Cooper had sat at the bar stools, so Julie went to greet her father.

“Hey dad,” she said, leaning into his muscled arm. In his older age, Link Larkin managed to get more fit than he was when she was young.

“Can you believe it?” He asked, voice low. Low enough for Cooper not to hear.

“The decriminalization?” Julie asked, confirming on what her father was talking about before adding her two cents. When he nodded, she said, “I think it was a long time coming.”

“We were watching the news,” her father said quietly, “when the news anchor announced it. I just felt a weight lift off my chest. I don’t know who I am. I feel like hiding each other from the world was such a part of our identities for so long. It almost feels like I’m missing something. The shame of it all. Knowing in the back of my heart that I could go to jail.”

Suddenly the tears started flowing again.

Silently, not moving, her father cried.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Imagine the stress these two have been facing over the past 38 years. Then letting it all go.


	12. As Long As We Both Shall Live

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is it folks. The moment you have been waiting for. Cue the church bells!
> 
> Maryland legalized marriage equality in January 2013.

“Friends, we have gathered here today to share with Link Larkin and Wade Collins an important moment in their lives. Their time together, they have seen their love and understanding of each other grow and blossom and now they have decided to live out the rest of their lives as one,” the minister at the front of the church said.

It was 2013 and had been fifty two years since the two men fell in love on the set of the Corny Collins Show. Wade was leaning on a cane and had gelled his thinning hair back. Her father, whom she stood as the “best man” for was on his own without assistance. They were staring at each other and she noticed the slight quake in her father’s shoulders and she could imagine the tears falling from his ice-blue eyes as he was about to be legally joined to the man he had loved for more years of his life than not.

“I, Wade Collins, take you Link Larkin to be my husband, my partner in life and my one true love. I will cherish our union and love you more each day than I did the day before. I will trust you and respect you, laugh with you and cry with you, loving you faithfully through good times and bad, regardless of the obstacles we may face together. I give you my hand, my heart, and my love, from this day forward for as long as we both shall live.”

“I, Link Larkin, take you, Wade Collins, to be my husband, my friend, my faithful partner and my love from this day forward. In the presence our family and friends, I offer you my solemn vow to be your faithful partner in sickness and in health, in good times and in bad, and in joy as well as in sorrow. I promise to love you unconditionally, to support you in your goals, to honour and respect you, to laugh with you and cry with you, and to cherish you for as long as we both shall live.”

“By the power vested in me by the State of Maryland, I now pronounce you husband and husband. You may now kiss the groom.”

When Wade took that one step towards her father and closed the space between their lips, Julie knew that she had never see a look of deeper love on one’s features than that on Wade’s. Julie knew that marriage would never erase the pain and horrors of the first fifty two years of their relationship, but it would fix the next years.

“I present to you the newly married couple, Wade and Link,” the minister said and as the two men turned to face the front of the church and the small crowd that had gathered, she watched the two men, one in his late sixties and the other six years older get ready to embrace the next chapter of their lives.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading this. As always any comments and edits are welcome!

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first work on ao3. I wrote it after binge watching too many movies with Zac Efron in them. Any edits I may have missed would be greatly appreciated to be brought to my attention. Unbetaed.


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